During the period when he was considering the Rich case, Bill Clinton was simultaneously engaged in a desperate effort to resuscitate the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations and listening to Ehud Barak, Shimon Peres, the former chief of the Mossad intelligence service and a host of other current and former dignitaries from Israel as they pleaded with him to pardon Rich. It is almost certain that those entreaties swayed him more than the largesse of Rich's ex-wife Denise, who has donated more than $1 million to Democrats over the last decade.

Helping Rich became a priority for Israeli officials -- particularly those in the hierarchy of the Labor Party -- because of his services to the Jewish state. Not only did the Swiss-based businessman give enormous amounts of money to charities and institutions there, but he has also used his connections in other nations to perform services for the Israeli government. According to press reports, he has assisted in the rescue of Jewish families from hostile countries, and he's believed to have gathered information for Israeli intelligence agencies as well.

If Clinton was influenced by Israeli pleas on behalf of the undeserving Rich, that wouldn't excuse his decision, which has been justly criticized as improper in both substance and appearance. Nor is Clinton exempt from criticism because his predecessor awarded pardons that were even worse. But a pardon given for reasons of state, in pursuit of peace, ought to be regarded as wholly different from a pardon awarded for political and charitable contributions.

Evidence that has emerged so far strongly suggests that the context of the peace negotiations was important and perhaps even decisive. It was no secret that Clinton, as he faced the final months of his presidency, seemed consumed with reviving and even completing the Oslo peace process before he left office. To his critics, this was proof of an unseemly obsession with his own legacy, while his supporters saw it as a noble attempt to salvage a once-promising initiative. Whatever his motivations, there is little doubt that the impasse between Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was Clinton's most urgent priority.

At a time when Clinton was urging Barak to make critical concessions to the Palestinians, the then-prime minister and various important figures in Israel were asking him for two heavy favors: a pardon for Jonathan Pollard, convicted of espionage against the United States for Israel; and a pardon for Rich, their generous benefactor and intelligence asset.

The situation Clinton faced was ably summarized by an unlikely ally on NBC's "Meet the Press" last Sunday. Former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova, an ardent Republican and frequently a harsh critic of the Clinton administration, explained the situation in detail to host Tim Russert as follows: "When the prime minister of Israel, one of our closest allies, communicates with the president of the United States about a pardon, I would say to you that the president has a pretty good idea of how important the case is.The prime minister of Israel became deeply involved in this case, and he recommended a pardon."

DiGenova went on to say that "Mr. Rich has a huge foundation in Israel, giving hundreds of millions of dollars to charitable causes there. This was a very important case to the Israeli government, and they weighed in very heavily directly with the president of the United States." He also noted that Barak had sought clemency for Pollard as well.

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